Thanks all for the really helpful advice! It's good to know what all the laws and options are.

I actually am very friendly with a few women at my company that have had babies lately, and that's where I got my information from. I had heard the complaints in the past that our policy is not great since the company doesn't offer STD, so when we started thinking about TTC I started asking for details. Unfortunately our HR department is not trustworthy at all and I know if I made a call and identified myself senior management would know instantly.

In Response to Re: maternity leave:[QUOTE]In MA, even if you're not covered by FMLA, there is a provision that allows 8 weeks unpaid leave for the birth/adoption of each child (so if you have twins, you're eligible for 16 weeks, as opposed to the 12 for FMLA).

Where is the referenced regulation for this? I'm very interested as I'm having twins and my HR person said there was no provision for twins in my leave benefits!

Interesting fact I just read in the Feb. isssue of Parents magazine: The U.S. is one of only 4 countries in the world to NOT have guaranteed paid maternity leave. The others are Swaziland, Lesotho, and Papua New Guinea.

Kiwi - I totally agree that working part time as a new mom isn't an ideal situation. Although, I also know that DH and I rely heavily on my salary and if I didn't get any paid maternity leave I would have to go back around 6 weeks. If I could find a way to extend my time at home by working a few days to bring in some sort of income it would be a better option for me than having to go back full time and put the LO in daycare. I'm very lucky that this isn't something I'm faced with.

For those that asked about MMLA, I did a lot of research last year because I had an employee who was pregnant but didn't qualify for FMLA. As I read the MMLA regulations the only time constraint is you must have completed to qualify is your company's probationary period, if any. At my job we have a 3 month probationary period for all new employees so my employee had been employed for 5 months when she went out on maternity leave and was given 8 weeks per child.

Anyone who has any part of maternity leave paid for by their employer in this country should be extremely relieved. It's so rare! We get 10 days paid, which I am very glad to have. I'm still mad at my Canadian friend who got an entire year paid maternity for both her kids... ;)

I'm still mad at my Canadian friend who got an entire year paid maternity for both her kids... ;)Posted by poppy609

My company is based out of Canada so a lot of the women that I have to coordinate work with disappear for a year for maternity leave. I would love it if they transferred me up there! Or at least adopted the Canadian policies down here.

SSbride - I was mistaken; my friend did not purchase her STD as an individual. She purchased it through Aflac, but there had to be a minimum # of people at her work who purchased a plan. (She thinks the min was 8.) And her employer had to agree to do the deductions through their paychecks. Sounds like the type of thing that would work in a small environment, like a doctor's office where she works.

With her plan, there was a 10 month wait for payout. So based on that amount of time, you can't be pregnant when you purchase, but you can be pretty soon after.